Rules relaxed for hiring foreign care staff but bosses says it's costly and tied up in red tape

Care workers have been put on the government’s list of occupations with a shortage of skilled workers from today – a change supposed to make it easier for the care sector to recruit from abroad but bosses say the application process is bureaucratic, expensive and far from quick.

Care home and home care workers have been added to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) for 12 months and are eligible for the post-Brexit Health and Care Visa from 15 February.

When the Department for Health and Social Care announced the change to immigration rules last Christmas Eve, it stated its decision 'will make it quicker, cheaper and easier for social care employers to recruit eligible workers to fill vital gaps'.

The care sector has been struggling to recruit enough staff to meet workforce shortages and faces over 100,000 vacancies and has welcomed the move but it is warning that the application process of hiring workers from overseas is not so easy or cheap.

Before a care provider can hire a foreign worker, criteria including police checks must be carried out for every country that a care worker has lived or worked in for the last 10 years. Often information is sent to care bosses in different languages.

Care providers have been busy applying for licences which will enable them to recruit from abroad. The Home Office says most licence applications are decided within eight weeks.

However care providers are experiencing delays in getting the licences needed to recruit staff, according to Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group.

He said: “Social care is facing its biggest staffing crisis in living memory and anything that alleviates that is welcome indeed.

“But providers are now experiencing lengthy delays in getting the licences needed to recruit staff, which is the last thing we need.

"The government needs to streamline this process, or we will be no better off."

Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association (NCA), which represents care providers, told Radio 4's Today programme that when it comes to the application process to meet immigration rules: “It’s not an easy process. It’s not a cheaper option.

“A lot of providers are actually saying to us we really need somebody to do this. Potentially a lawyer. There are surcharges which we also to pay for the period of time they are with us.

“One provider was saying to me only yesterday that they brought in 18 people they were looking at and it was going to cost them in excess of £50,000 to do that.”